The present invention relates to an improvement of the arrangement structure of a vehicle-use fuel pump.
As the conventional arrangement structure of a vehicle-use fuel pump, there has been known the arrangement structure which locates a fuel pump unit below a fuel tank; and to be more specific, at the right side in the vehicle-width direction from a position directly below a fuel tank by mounting the fuel pump unit on a shroud of a cooling fan (see JP-A-2005-219668 (hereinafter JP '668), for example).
As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 and FIG. 7 of JP '668, a fuel pump unit 47 is configured such that a pair of upper and lower fixed portions 67, 67 are mounted on a front wall 65 and a right side wall 66 of a case body 57 respectively, and the fixed portions 67, 67 are mounted on a shroud of a cooling fan 46. Due to such a constitution, the fuel pump unit 47 is located below a fuel tank 13 and between a cooling fan 46 for forced cooling of an engine and an engine 5. Further, as shown in FIG. 9 (a front view) of the patent document 1, the fuel pump unit 47 is located at a right side in the vehicle-width direction from a position directly below the fuel tank 13.
The fuel pump unit 47 is a heavy-weight object and hence, in locating the unit in a vehicle, it is preferable to locate the unit at a position as low as possible for lowering the center of gravity of the vehicle. Further, to take the traveling performance such as the turning performance of a vehicle into consideration, it is preferable to arrange the unit as close as possible to the center of the vehicle body.
It is an object of the present invention to lower the center of gravity of a vehicle and, at the same time, to enhance the traveling performance of the vehicle by improving the arrangement structure of a fuel pump (or the position of the fuel pump in the vehicle structure).